First things first, you can do this. This is a hard, content monster of a test, but it is manageable. Remember, a little bit every day goes a VERY long way. You will never regret starting off early, exposing yourself to NBME-style questions and investing in yourself along the entirety of your learning pre-Step/pre-dedicated in a way that allows you to go into dedicated feeling well-prepared.
This document will be a bit about how I personally prepared before and during dedicated, and any other tips/tricks/gems I have for you. Studying for Step, as studying in any other setting, needs to be individualized. Chances are, you know what works for you. If you don’t, figure that out first! Doing hundreds/thousands of questions will drain your battery quickly. Recharge and fill your cup EVERY DAY with exercise, sleep, time with family/friends, nature, etc. At the end of the day, prep for Step should begin long before dedicated starts. I will be forever grateful for the work I put in beforehand that gifted me 6 beautiful weeks of time off and freedom.
Before Dedicated
Best advice, view preclinical through the framework of being a long, drawn-out ‘dedicated.’ My main tools: Anking + UWorld. My only regret for my own personal studying was not starting UWorld earlier on. I purchased UWorld at the beginning of M2, but to be completely honest, it would have been immensely helpful had I used it during the entirety of M1 as well. It’s expensive, but worth it. Starting in block 4, I aimed to do 10 questions on that block’s material and 10 random questions from past blocks material. You can do more, you can do less, but stick to a number that is reasonable and make it a priority. As far as Anking goes, the best thing I did for myself was to keep up with past blocks Anki all along the way. It is tempting to drop the card load by suspending, but try your best to not fall for this trap. Do your anki reviews (If you are an anki person of course… p.s., If you aren’t an Anki person, I commend you and do not know how you do it. You are the most impressive kind of individual).
The more you keep up with it, the more the reviews will become tolerable. The summer before M2, I kept up with my anki and that was it. Maybe sprinkle in a bit of UWorld, maybe don’t. Enjoy your last real summer of forever.
During Dedicated
I took about 3.5 weeks for dedicated. My plan was simple and as follows: 2-3 days of full content review (Pathoma Ch. 1-4, Randy Neil Biostats, etc.). The rest of the time, either: 3-5 blocks of 40 UWorld questions OR a full-length NBME practice exam. Using UWorld as my primary learning tool, I was able to see evidence of how certain concepts are tested, really evaluate gaps in my knowledge, and easily find anki cards that filled those gaps which I could study each day. So a typical day for me was wake up at 7-8am, do my anki incorrects (use the uworld tags and save time instead of making your own), workout and eat some breakfast, and then just start ripping UWorld blocks. Early on, I used a notebook to map out concepts, write down pathways, etc. when reviewing blocks. Later on in dedicated, I simply just unsuspended some anki cards and moved on to maximize the volume of questions I could get through. Don’t get through more UWorld just to say you did, get through more to expose yourself to as many concepts as possible. In conjunction with that, utilize NBME exams to measure your progress. Older NBMEs are *meh* when it comes to being representative of the real things. Newer NBMEs and Free120 exams are a much better measure, but the old ones still hold value in having similar concepts tested on exams, just in a different way. Review well, but do not spend 10 hours reviewing a test. Your time is probably better spent, moving on to more questions.
The resources I used to study were UWorld, Anking, First Aid, Sketchy Micro, and YouTube channels like Dirty Medicine (plus a bunch of Instagram reels about Step 1 that took over my phone). I did not study for Step 1 during the summer between M1 and M2. I used that time to relax, focus on a little research, and enjoy time with friends and family, and I do not regret doing that. During Block 5, I started by doing 5 UWorld questions a day and reviewing what I got wrong and what I got right. This only took me about 30 minutes in total, and it was easy to work into my schedule. Once block 6 started, I moved to doing 10 UWorld questions a day and going over my results. This lasted about an hour each time, which was also super easy to fit into my daily schedule. I did these 10 UWorld questions a day through winter break and until dedicated officially started January 5th. Starting about halfway through block 6, I would also do the Anking cards that corresponded with the UWorld questions I got wrong or that I did not feel confident about. I would skim through my First Aid book, looking at topics I got wrong, and start watching Dirty Medicine biochemistry and Sketchy Micro to start getting a good foundation. I wish I had done the Anking cards for my UWorld incorrect questions from the beginning of block 5, but I only learned about that feature halfway through block 6.
Starting the first day of dedicated, I would do two blocks of 40 UWorld Questions a day, reviewing my correct and incorrect answers, and then doing the Anking cards that corresponded to my incorrect answers and ones I wasn’t confident about. This would take me about 3 hours for each 40-question block. I would do two blocks of 40 questions Monday-Friday each week, then do one block of 40 questions each on Saturday and Sunday to be able to rest a little bit on weekends. Since I started doing UWorld Questions during block 5, I was already about 25-30% through the question bank once dedicated started, so my schedule allowed me to get 100% of the question block completed about a week before my exam to leave room for final preparation. I started doing sets of 5 incorrect question sets during block 5, but I do not recommend doing sets of incorrect questions until after you have completed the whole UWorld question set, because most of them came from a couple of days beforehand, which I had recently seen and did not help my studying. I would look through First Aid and watch Dirty Medicine/Sketchy each day, anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on how much content I wanted to review.
About practice exams, I did the first two CBSEs the school offered in person on the Thursday of the first and third week of dedicated. Then I did four CBSSAs, once a week on Thursday starting week 4, until the week before my exam, which was on Monday, February 23rd. I would recommend only doing CBSSAs because you can go through all the questions to see what you missed and need to study. On the days I took practice exams, I did not do any UWorld, except for the last practice test, where I added one 40 question block to simulate closer to normal test length, but you can add two sets of 40 to be the same length as Step 1. To review the exams, I would review one or two sets of the 50-question blocks from the CBSSA each day after the exam until I had looked through every question. I also did the free 120 NBME questions about 4 days before my exam at my testing site, which helped me to see and feel what the test center was like. I got up to a 97% chance of passing on my last CBSSA and felt as confident as I could going into my exam; I didn’t do anything the day before my exam.
In all, I took 7 weeks of dedicated to study for Step 1. Like everyone else, I did not feel great about the test coming out of it and during the two weeks it took to get my score. But in the end, it all worked out, and I feel like the materials I used and my schedule worked out well for me while allowing me to get about 8 hours of sleep each night. Each person’s schedule and the materials they use will vary, but stick to your schedule and use what works for you. Make sure you relax a little during dedicated, so you don’t get too burned out. Feel confident in your studying when it comes to test day, and take some time to relax and celebrate once you’re done. Hopefully seeing what I did and used will help you determine how you are going to study.
Best of luck, you’ve got this!